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Description/Abstract

This paper examines decision methods applied to a distributed system that must operate collaborativelyto achieve a common objective and tolerate partial system failure, necessitating structural reorganization.The problem addressed is controlled and cooperative action of multiple physical agents in a spaceenvironment, tasked with forming an interferometer, maximizing the interferometer lifetime by stagedplacement of resources and maintaining optimality in the presence of individual agent failures. Whilsta seemingly niche application, the methods developed and analyzed are equally valid for any multiplephysicalagent system such as UAVs or AUVs. Centralized optimization methods will be applied to formdecisions in addition to a distributed contract-net like decision method, wherein an auction system isadopted to form group decisions. These methods are investigated for the practicality of applying suchmethods to an engineering system.